Made it to Yahar'gul, Unseen Village in Bloodborne, now taking a break. Good game, but I find the world blander than Souls'.

Started Uncharted 4 today. So little gunplay in three hours in a series that used to have so much of it. It's not a bad story, but most of it consists of braindead climbing. I was glad when the game finally let me kill some people, but that brief sequence was followed by more talking and climbing and talking. It almost plays itself. Turned off all aim assistance. Switching the aim and shoot buttons to L1 and R1 improved my aim tremendously. Triggers are such a bad idea for shooters, honestly.

Edit: Despite consistent almost entirely of braindead climbing, the heist mission in Italy is entertaining, in a filmic way. I like Nadine.

Edit: Ahhh... Platforming gunplay. My favorite part about Uncharted. I wish the hipfire were tighter and the recoil weren't quite so high, but it's not bad gunplay. Easily better than Tomb Raider's.

Ezekiel:Made it to Yahar'gul, Unseen Village in Bloodborne, now taking a break. Good game, but I find the world blander than Souls'.

Started Uncharted 4 today. So little gunplay in three hours in a series that used to have so much of it. It's not a bad story, but most of it consists of braindead climbing. I was glad when the game finally let me kill some people, but that brief sequence was followed by more talking and climbing and talking. It almost plays itself. Turned off all aim assistance. Switching the aim and shoot buttons to L1 and R1 improved my aim tremendously. Triggers are such a bad idea for shooters, honestly.

Edit: Despite consistent almost entirely of braindead climbing, the heist mission in Italy is entertaining, in a filmic way. I like Nadine.

Edit: Ahhh... Platforming gunplay. My favorite part about Uncharted. I wish the hipfire were tighter and the recoil weren't quite so high, but it's not bad gunplay. Easily better than Tomb Raider's.

Lots of dark bluish grey hues in Bloodborne, but once you get out of Yharnam it gets more varied. Cainhurst is more Souls-like, and has one of the better optional bosses in the game.

Judging by your complaints of UC4 you'd probably enjoy Lost Legacy more; well worth picking up cheap down the road. Climbing is much better, as was the pacing with more interesting gun fights and far less walk/talk. UC4's length felt bloated to me, but I did enjoy the story. Probably the best since the original and arguably better because it seemed to be was more grounded.

Did you get into God of War 3 yet? Wondering what you thought of it compared to the first two.

Ezekiel:Made it to Yahar'gul, Unseen Village in Bloodborne, now taking a break. Good game, but I find the world blander than Souls'.

Started Uncharted 4 today. So little gunplay in three hours in a series that used to have so much of it. It's not a bad story, but most of it consists of braindead climbing. I was glad when the game finally let me kill some people, but that brief sequence was followed by more talking and climbing and talking. It almost plays itself. Turned off all aim assistance. Switching the aim and shoot buttons to L1 and R1 improved my aim tremendously. Triggers are such a bad idea for shooters, honestly.

Edit: Despite consistent almost entirely of braindead climbing, the heist mission in Italy is entertaining, in a filmic way. I like Nadine.

Edit: Ahhh... Platforming gunplay. My favorite part about Uncharted. I wish the hipfire were tighter and the recoil weren't quite so high, but it's not bad gunplay. Easily better than Tomb Raider's.

Lots of dark bluish grey hues in Bloodborne, but once you get out of Yharnam it gets more varied. Cainhurst is more Souls-like, and has one of the better optional bosses in the game.

Judging by your complaints of UC4 you'd probably enjoy Lost Legacy more; well worth picking up cheap down the road. Climbing is much better, as was the pacing with more interesting gun fights and far less walk/talk. UC4's length felt bloated to me, but I did enjoy the story. Probably the best since the original and arguably better because it seemed to be was more grounded.

Did you get into God of War 3 yet? Wondering what you thought of it compared to the first two.

I think it's partly the globetrotting. There's more of it than in Uncharted 2. Every time they go to a new location, they have to start over and build to the action.

The last time I played God of War III, I reached the underworld. Too early to form an opinion. I was distracted by BB and now U4.

Ezekiel:These pirate isles are one of the most beautiful places I've seen in gaming. I wanna go swimming there. Naughty Dog games always have such impressive textures and lighting.

I wish Uncharted had a crouch button. All that low cover and no crouch...

Yeah I wish some place like that existed in real life. I've always liked when games depict the effects of long periods of time on places. It would've been cool if there was some sort of flash back to when it was pristine for contrast.

One of the few things I liked more about TLoU besides it's melee was its health system.

On topic I was planning on locking into The Witcher 3 but really wasn't expecting to have Kingdom Come: Deliverance (henceforth to be referred to as KCD) take over my gaming life this much. I stayed up last night far later than I should have learning pick pocketing, playing dice, getting drunk with a priest and having to convincingly deliver his morning sermon based on a prior conversation in exchange for info, trying to find my second treasure, since the first one (technically the third map) was pretty damn worth it in terms of gear. The maps are interesting because you have to learn to read (which isn't needlessly drawn out) before you can fully "read" them, and the way they're drawn you really have to pay attention to map details and account for hand-drawn inaccuracies of the time period. So it makes finding them a Eureka! kind of moment (if you refuse to look them up online) which makes it more immersive.

And speaking of immersive, the best horse riding hands down. You feel the weight and inertia of the horse, especially when it jumps a fence or stone wall. Turning also feels much less clumsy than in games like Red Dead: Redemption, MGSV, or even The Witcher 3. I remember reading comments about the combat also being ridiculously easy, but after playing TW3 for a while that's kinda laughable. You actually have to manage stamina and bait opponents into attacking here if you can't overpower them. Sure, running away or surrendering are options, but if you stay and fight you really have to work at landing good hits, and I still haven't quite figured out how to riposte effectively. Practice, practice, practice. Or maybe I'll level up my strength some more, buy/find/steal a mace and smash through their armor.

hanselthecaretaker:Judging by your complaints of UC4 you'd probably enjoy Lost Legacy more; well worth picking up cheap down the road. Climbing is much better, as was the pacing with more interesting gun fights and far less walk/talk. UC4's length felt bloated to me, but I did enjoy the story. Probably the best since the original and arguably better because it seemed to be was more grounded.

I actually found Uncharted 4 far less grounded than the original. The undead and Nazis just fall in line with the pulp action genre. In Uncharted 4, wooden ruins and fabrics are in such unbelievably good condition. I even found a 300 year old backpack out in the open with a legible note inside. In the original, the ancient locales were made of stone.

Or, do you mean the way the characters acted? I found it kind of corny. Uncharted started to take itself too seriously after the second game, I think. You're playing a silly action-adventure with impossible odds and locations and the characters are crying (actually crying) about their personal problems. I don't want melodramatic art crap in my Indiana Jones.

I'm sort of in between games right now so I just tend to kill time replaying old games and going for trophies.

Platinum'd Katamari Forever a couple of days ago (fuck you Cowbear) and revisited LittleBigPlanet 2 tonight only to have something like 7 trophies spring on me as soon as I logged in. After that I started playing the Tomb Raider multiplayer some hours ago. Stumbled into a boosting session with some very chill dudes, had a lot of fun with it. Sucks that the multiplayer is all but dead. I've been playing the Uncharted 3 multiplayer on and off for a year now and it's amazing how many people are playing it to this day.

hanselthecaretaker:Judging by your complaints of UC4 you'd probably enjoy Lost Legacy more; well worth picking up cheap down the road. Climbing is much better, as was the pacing with more interesting gun fights and far less walk/talk. UC4's length felt bloated to me, but I did enjoy the story. Probably the best since the original and arguably better because it seemed to be was more grounded.

I actually found Uncharted 4 far less grounded than the original. The undead and Nazis just fall in line with the pulp action genre. In Uncharted 4, wooden ruins and fabrics are in such unbelievably good condition. I even found a 300 year old backpack out in the open with a legible note inside. In the original, the ancient locales were made of stone.

Or, do you mean the way the characters acted? I found it kind of corny. Uncharted started to take itself too seriously after the second game, I think. You're playing a silly action-adventure with impossible odds and locations and the characters are crying (actually crying) about their personal problems. I don't want melodramatic art crap in my Indiana Jones.

I meant the story and how it was the first to not include a "surprise monster of the week". Yeah, all the games are guilty of defying reality in terms of set design and gameplay though. In the original you run a gauntlet of centuries-old wooden planks and have equally old paper maps to read.

Then there's of course puzzles...why? Because game. My favorite puzzle level from the original was near the end with the numerical pillars and water. It made me think every time I played, and was never frustrating like the statue-turning one before it.

OT: I started Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice. I only remembered from the trailers that the plot happens in a country that has no defense lawyers. The reason was unexpected: the defense lawyers receive the same punishment as the criminal if the later is found guilty, and the high priestess can show the memories of the murder victim's last moments and interpret them for the court. IMO, getting the murder victim's testimony from beyond the grave is something that was missing from this series since game one.

I'm still playing FFXV too. I just arrived to the infamous chapter 13 again. They seem to have nerfed it out. Not only is the Ring of Lucii super effective; they also added an "easy route", which isn't really a route. It's playing Gladious' side of the story, equipped with his normal weapon.

I also finished the Ignis chapter DLC. Not bad, albeit short. It was interesting to see what happened to Ignis in Altissia (the reference to Kingsglaive was a nice touch, and I can't get enough laughs out of Ardyn nonchalant shenanigans), and the optional alternative ending sequence was pretty mood-lifting.

Still hooked on KC:D. Finding treasure is pretty satisfying not only because the maps require some keen observation and inference, but the gear is usually worthwhile. Being first person you don't see all your new armor in game, but catching glimpses of it when you reach for things is cool because it's incredibly detailed and of course immersive.

I ran across a Cuman bandit along the way. He tried to bait me with a chest of his own on the trail, which was a success on his part, but he was ultimately no match even with a shield. I was able to stagger him and knock him off balance enough to find an opening. The bad part was he had a pretty good shield upon later inspection, but my strikes had damaged it beyond repair. I'll have to think of that next time.

I'm also going to have to find a trader with enough wealth to give me at least close to full value for the high value gear I've acquired so I can buy a better horse. Sure, I could steal one, but I'm going to draw the line at lock picking.

If you've never played it, imagine playing Pokemon, only with real-time combat where you can to be one of the combatants alongside your "Devils". You play as detective trying to solve a mystery, and you can use the devils you acquire, not just for combat, but also for your investigations, allowing you to read people's minds, remove obstacles, set things on fire, etc.

The plot has you investigating a clan of assassins in a rural part of 1920s Japan. The real amusing part is how they portrayed the rural people's Okinawa dialect by having them speaking like southern hillbillies. So, prepare to see guys in traditional Japanese armor saying things like "Howdy! What're yew folks from the capital doin' in this here town?"

The game's far from perfect though. The plot was fairly simple to follow, but the game didn't seem to think so and constantly re-iterated things, and even had mandatory moments where you and your boss gather to recap everything that's happened so far in the investigation. Also, despite being an investigation, all the deductions seem to take place between NPCs, leaving you to just follow orders and gather evidence. This makes the investigation feel more like a backdrop for the story, rather than something you're actively engaging in.

Some things also seemed to take longer than they had to. Every time you approach a save point, the game insists on describing the dragon-like light emitting from the ground to you, like you're seeing it for the first time, and it gets old and repetitive fast, along with many other repetitive activities that require you to scroll through the same sequence of dialogue boxes every time you do them.

Still, I like the setting. How many games have you played that take place in 1920s Japan, with Japanese people walking around in suits and bowler hats, referring to women as "dames", and men in brown military uniforms being acknowledged as a normal part of the scenery, since WW2 hasn't happened yet?

The combat is one of my favorite things, because you have to take care of yourself AND your devils, and unlike most party-based 3D action RPGs, you're given the tools to do it without needing to rely on the AI of your allies. You can block or dodge, and by holding L2, you can turn your devils invisible, rendering them invulnerable, but also taking them out of the fight, until you release L2.

For offense You have a saber or katana that you can used for attacking, and a pistol for long-range attacking and stunning enemies, but most of the damage comes from the spells your devils cast. Keeping with SMT fashion, exploiting elemental weaknesses is vital. It stuns enemies, lowers their defense, and causes subsequent attacks on them to replenish your MP, so you can keep casting spells through you devils. It will be your main means of maintaining your MP, so you won't want to neglect it.

Despite its flaws, it felt good to get back into it. Combat was fun, and the plot had you trying to straddle the line between complacency and pushing recklessly for change, with a character representing each side.

hanselthecaretaker:Judging by your complaints of UC4 you'd probably enjoy Lost Legacy more; well worth picking up cheap down the road. Climbing is much better, as was the pacing with more interesting gun fights and far less walk/talk. UC4's length felt bloated to me, but I did enjoy the story. Probably the best since the original and arguably better because it seemed to be was more grounded.

I actually found Uncharted 4 far less grounded than the original. The undead and Nazis just fall in line with the pulp action genre. In Uncharted 4, wooden ruins and fabrics are in such unbelievably good condition. I even found a 300 year old backpack out in the open with a legible note inside. In the original, the ancient locales were made of stone.

Or, do you mean the way the characters acted? I found it kind of corny. Uncharted started to take itself too seriously after the second game, I think. You're playing a silly action-adventure with impossible odds and locations and the characters are crying (actually crying) about their personal problems. I don't want melodramatic art crap in my Indiana Jones.

Yeah, I felt the same way once Uncharted 3 came in. I enjoyed Drake for being a lovable scamp and he just wasn't as fun to follow when he wasn't being a lovable scamp. Also, as others have said in the past, it's a game with implications that can ruin the mood when you start turning your brain on, so when the game gets serious and introspective, it usually doesn't do it any favors.

sageoftruth:Yeah, I felt the same way once Uncharted 3 came in. I enjoyed Drake for being a lovable scamp and he just wasn't as fun to follow when he wasn't being a lovable scamp. Also, as others have said in the past, it's a game with implications that can ruin the mood when you start turning your brain on, so when the game gets serious and introspective, it usually doesn't do it any favors.

Yeah, Uncharted 3 was the worst as the game purposefully sucked all the fun out of all the scenarios by basically playing the "serious" card from start of the game. Literally every character at one point tells Drake that bringing Sully along will have bad consequences as he's too old and is the whole adventure even worth it. So you think something is going to happen to Sully during all those dangerous setpieces and then they do the whole super obvious fake death scene even, but at the very end of the game it's just standard Uncharted fluff with Sully cracking jokes during the final sequence and Drake and Elena getting back together yet again. So what was the point of really any of the game's themes? Drake learned nothing and everything returned to status quo by the end. Uncharted 3 was the most egregious example of the popular criticism of ludonarrative dissonance IMO but I don't remember the game even getting shit on for it. Not only does much of the story/character stuff not even work within Uncharted 3 (that pirate stuff was beyond stupid), it contradicts previous games like say Uncharted 2 and how Sully backed out of that adventure because he was too old yet he will follow Drake literally anywhere in Uncharted 3. Uncharted 3 is also the one Uncharted game where the villains would actually plain and simple just lose if Drake stayed home and did nothing. It was quite obvious that the Uncharted 3 production was a mess from how little the story, levels, and gameplay actually meshed with each other. Even on the technical side, the game was a mess and weeks before gold, it wasn't even running on OG PS3s.

Phoenixmgs:Uncharted 3 is also the one Uncharted game where the villains would actually plain and simple just lose if Drake stayed home and did nothing.

To be fair that's the case with every Indiana Jones movie as well, which Uncharted is obviously emulating.

It's been awhile since I've seen the Indy movies even though I own the trilogy (it is a trilogy) but maybe in hindsight, that could be true that Indy wasn't needed. However, I'm pretty sure Temple of Doom started with the villains having won and Indy basically stops their winning. Also, with Uncharted 3 the characters even tell Drake that the whole adventure isn't worth it at the start. I'm guessing the Indy movies at least have it that at the start of the adventure, it seems Indy is needed.

I'm in Tibet now and Uncharted 2 is starting to show what a poor shooter it is. Well, poor is a strong word. It could be better, is what I'm saying. I was really enjoying myself, so much so that I played from the opening to the village in one day. But starting from the train sequence, the enemies became too powerful. Health regen really isn't any good. You're instantly killed all the time because you have so few hitpoints, because that's the only way to make infinite health challenging. Also, it takes so many shots to kill someone. I was trying to use as little cover as possible, but it's not viable anymore. Hell, a lot of my deaths are because I get bored waiting for my screen to no longer be black and white.

Phoenixmgs:Uncharted 3 is also the one Uncharted game where the villains would actually plain and simple just lose if Drake stayed home and did nothing.

To be fair that's the case with every Indiana Jones movie as well, which Uncharted is obviously emulating.

It's been awhile since I've seen the Indy movies even though I own the trilogy (it is a trilogy) but maybe in hindsight, that could be true that Indy wasn't needed. However, I'm pretty sure Temple of Doom started with the villains having won and Indy basically stops their winning. Also, with Uncharted 3 the characters even tell Drake that the whole adventure isn't worth it at the start. I'm guessing the Indy movies at least have it that at the start of the adventure, it seems Indy is needed.

Well, he does free the kids and return the Sankara stone back to the village in Temple of Doom. But in the case of Raiders and Crusade, the villains are doomed from the get go: with or without Indy they're going to roast when they open the ark and fail the knight's trials, respectively. All Indy does is accelerate the inevitable by collaborating with them. He doesn't do so at any tragic expense, so all is well.

There's a similar parallel with Drake's Fortune/Deception - again the bad guys are digging their own graves (by unleashing the "curses" of El Dorado and Iram upon themselves), Nate just makes it easier for them. Arguably the same deal with Among Thieves, although it's questionable whether Lazarevic would've been successful if Nate hadn't fought him for a bit.

Ever wanted to play a Persona game with action-rpg style gameplay? Well, Tokyo Xanadu is the game for you and what I've been engrossed in for the past few days. It is made by falcom (the Ys people) and feels like an excellent specimen of story-heavy action rpg goodness with lots of lovable characters you get to know and really cool battles, the music is hype as usual too. Here's the intro to see if this looks like your thing:

Johnny Novgorod:Well, he does free the kids and return the Sankara stone back to the village in Temple of Doom. But in the case of Raiders and Crusade, the villains are doomed from the get go: with or without Indy they're going to roast when they open the ark and fail the knight's trials, respectively. All Indy does is accelerate the inevitable by collaborating with them. He doesn't do so at any tragic expense, so all is well.

There's a similar parallel with Drake's Fortune/Deception - again the bad guys are digging their own graves (by unleashing the "curses" of El Dorado and Iram upon themselves), Nate just makes it easier for them. Arguably the same deal with Among Thieves, although it's questionable whether Lazarevic would've been successful if Nate hadn't fought him for a bit.

What I was trying to say was that the characters (and audience) believed that Ark in Raiders (after a quick wiki scan) was something powerful that the Nazis should be stopped from acquiring. Sure, it ends up that the Ark doesn't grant the powers that everyone thought. So in hindsight, Indy wasn't needed. I'm guessing Crusade is similar. However, Uncharted 3's plot always felt like Drake didn't need to do anything from the very start of the game. Again, I forget Uncharted 1 (didn't like that game much), but I recall Drake doing it more for the treasure than anything else. Uncharted 2, I think Lazarevic definitely would've at least brute forced his way into the city without Flynn or Drake figuring out the puzzles.

I recall being rather indifferent to Cutter. There was so much other plot stuff going on that was horrible that I never was like 'oh, the Cutter storyline was such a missed opportunity'. However, your idea for Cutter definitely makes the 'supposedly' core themes of the story so much better. The game needed the stakes raised quite a bit for Drake to learn something because obviously the game wasn't just going to have Drake realize everyone is right and quit the adventure. The game spends like 90% of the time hitting you over the head that Drake is selfishly dragging friends into this adventure and then to do nothing with that at all basically negates that 90% of the game. Your Cutter idea could've definitely been the catalyst for Drake changing his ways and learning to be a better person.

Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. I like these open gunfights. I just wish they lasted longer, Doom style. They're usually over in two minutes. The climbing paths and puzzles are a bit better than before. I liked this one:

Felt like a proper Nintendo puzzle.

I don't know why they removed the ability to fire sniper rifles with the over the shoulder view. I always thought using sniper rifles as regular rifles is badass.

^ Have you already burned through the whole UC collection or are you skipping around? Good to hear you got LL. Overall I think it distilled the best aspects of the series down to a single, near-perfect length game.

hanselthecaretaker:^ Have you already burned through the whole UC collection or are you skipping around? Good to hear you got LL. Overall I think it distilled the best aspects of the series down to a single, near-perfect length game.

Took a break from the collection after beating Uncharted 2. I don't feel like replaying another one just yet. This is the first Uncharted I'm playing on Normal. I decided to forfeit the trophy this time because the health regen system just isn't that good.

hanselthecaretaker:^ Have you already burned through the whole UC collection or are you skipping around? Good to hear you got LL. Overall I think it distilled the best aspects of the series down to a single, near-perfect length game.

Took a break from the collection after beating Uncharted 2. I don't feel like replaying another one just yet. This is the first Uncharted I'm playing on Normal. I decided to forfeit the trophy this time because the health regen system just isn't that good.

God of War 3 will be more fun on higher difficulties. It was for me at least, because you actually have a health bar to manage and fun melee combat.